Avoiding Stagflation
The Federal Reserve and European Central Bank should stand firm and raise rates this week.
Could stagflation — the toxic combination of stagnant output and persistently high inflation last experienced in the 1970s and 1980s — really be making a comeback?
It’s possible.
A further rise of 25 basis points in the policy rate, to 5.25%, is called for — and Fed Chair Jerome Powell should be careful not to promise that it will be the last. That should depend on further progress toward lower inflation.
At the ECB, the dilemma for President Christine Lagarde and her colleagues is similar, if more acute. Core inflation stands at 5.6% — and in France and Spain, it’s rising again. The ECB’s current policy rate is just 3%, still substantially negative in real terms.
The Editors Bloomberg 3 maj 2023


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